We are happy to guide you through “the Babsy ABC” from today, and to give you a little more insights into our world with exciting blog posts.
We would love to take you with us step by step and leave no questions or details unanswered. If you might have a question though, do not hesitate to contact us at any time. And now have fun!
A is for “At the beginning”
Babsy was created during my, Andrea’s, master’s degree in innovation management at the FFHS (Fernfachhochschule Schweiz). When I told my responsible manager about what we had developed (a kind of “Uber” for babysitters) he was immediately enthusiastic and encouraged me to participate in an innovation competition within the company where I was working. Helvetia had just launched the “Kickbox Project” innovation challenge, where ideas from employees could be brought into the company to foster them.
Still unclear how it would ultimately be designed, I embarked on a 4-month challenge with a newly recruited colleague (Sophia). We started with interviews, registered ourselves on various platforms as fake parents, in order to gather experience and comparative values. We quickly realized how important and at the same time how rare it was to find competent people in this professional field. We were shocked, that none of the platforms asked or checked who we really were. At the same time, we were motivated to change this with our idea. We also didn’t like the fact that all platforms were built on the “freemium-premium” model. This means that you have to sign up and pay first to actually read messages. It seemed that earning money is more important than providing services and help for parents. Sometimes with outdated profiles and dubious pictures etc.
We didn’t like that at all. In fact, our first 10 babysitters (who are still with us today) didn’t like it either when we confronted them with it. They were also shocked that we weren’t the parents of the other platform they assumed we were, and they confirmed to us that safety was important to them too.
Together with these hints, and those from parents who also wanted sitters to have a testing process, we worked on the idea: How can we change this?
We conducted interviews, collected ideas, wishes and needs. It turned out that safety and flexibility were the most important issues for both parents and sitters. So it was not primarily about building an app, but a solution that was good for both parties. With the app, we had found a platform and a possible and simple solution.
With the simplest means, we tried to present the app and started with the first placements via a social media group for the sitters, “playing” the app by making the placements. Nothing more than sharing the requests in the group, informing parents of all candidates, so that they could get to know the sitters (preferably all of them). Why get to know everyone?
Quite simply, this way, you can create a kind of “portfolio” of Mary Poppins’, i.e. sitters around you and thus achieve the highest possible coverage of childcare requests.
The more people you know, the more Mary Poppins you let into your life, the higher the chances of meeting the right person for every occasion. And the sitters also have so many and great job opportunities and know that even if they can’t do it once, a replacement is quickly arranged. And should one of the, let‘s say, 5 favorites couldn’t make it, the new sitters also have the opportunity to become a part of the seeking family’s life.
So far – so good – yes – but it wasn’t quite so simple. Our idea was that the project should also be social and focus on financing in such way that even a single mother with, for example, 2 children should be able to “afford” Babsy.
Through many interviews, we came up with a donation fee of CHF 2.50, which was perceived as fair by all those surveyed. Services that costs nothing have no value, but it can’t be too much either, because the financial burden on parents in Switzerland is already very, very high.
So we also delved into things like pricing, insurance research, rights and obligations, etc. It was a big and intensive journey. When the so-called pitch (presentation of the idea) came in late November 2018, we were confident of receiving the investment. Unfortunately, the jury decided otherwise, and the project was not pursued.
We were sad about this of course, and had to decide what to do with the 40 bookings, 20 sitters and 10 parents who had participated at the time. They trusted us and could already rely on us.
So should we just give up? No! Giving up wasn’t and still isn’t an option for us.
We decided to organize ourselves as a non-profit association without financial resources and support and to keep going. On a voluntary basis and with a lot of passion.
We have been walking this path of the heart since September 2018! We have “grown” from initially 20 parents, 10 sitters and 50 bookings to over 500 parents, over 130 sitters and in 2022, we were able to help in over 1750 cases.
All of this we do on a voluntary basis, alongside our main jobs. Each of us (there are more than 12 people as we speak) contributes between 5-20% of our time in the association, sometimes more, sometimes less, but with as much dedication as possible. We have created a service that allows registered parents to search for childcare practically at any time and gives childcare workers the opportunity to easily respond to any job postings.
The app cost a lot of money and we are happy and immensely grateful that the financing from the Swisslos Fonds Baselland was able to give us the starting signal we needed to slowly, safely and steadily move into the future.
Everything is not perfect yet, but we keep at it every day.
The app is still simply structured, offers a lot of room for improvement and we take note of the feedback and input from our users daily to be prepared for the next opportunity, a possible further development. However, this requires capital, and the ongoing donations only cover the fixed costs associated with the association, such as insurance, etc. We can only continue to develop when funds are granted for various projects. We use these funds entirely and exclusively for the benefit goodwill of the association and the development of the app. We did reinvent babysitting, but we created a unique opportunity to meet in a unique, secure network in Switzerland and thus realized an innovative, sustainable and non-profit platform that should make the world of childcare at least a little simpler easier, safer and fairer – for the children, for the parents and for the sitters. Because, only if every person involved, feels safe and treated fairly, we are able to contribute at making this world a little bit better every day.
Albert Einstein once said: “There will be no great discoveries and advances as long as there is one more unhappy child on earth.” We are happy and proud that we are making progress with Babsy, where we envision happy children and happy parents and where we, at the same time, ensure fair and healthy working conditions.
That’s it for the letter A “At the beginning”. We hope you enjoyed it and you were able to get a good insight. We are already looking forward to the next blog newsletter, where we will share more exciting details with you. Read you later. Andrea from Babsy.